Weekend highlights (July 27-28)

In the first half of 2024, game developers earned more on Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, and Yandex Games than a year earlier. Path of Exile set a new online record, and the studio co-founded by a Bungie founder raised $2.25 million for game development within Fortnite. Here’s what happened in the gaming industry over the weekend.

Path of Exile

• The newspaper Kommersant asked game web platforms how they were handling payments to developers in the first half of 2024. All those interviewed reported an increase in payments. For example, representatives of Odnoklassniki mentioned that over six months, the social network transferred a total of 1.6 billion rubles to game developers, which is 10% more than the previous year. VK representatives did not specify the amount but stated that compared to the first half of 2023, advertising payments to developers for VK Games projects increased by 62%, and payments from in-game purchases went up by 39%. It is also reported that in the first half of 2024, developer payments in Beeline Games grew by 67%, and in Yandex Games by 35%.
• The release of the "Expedition to the Kalguur" expansion helped Path of Exile increase its online game numbers to a record level. Grinding Gear Games announced that during the weekend, more than 350,000 people played Path of Exile simultaneously, marking the highest number of concurrent users the game has ever attracted. The figure could have been higher, but in the first few hours after the expansion's release, the console version of Path of Exile encountered several issues (which have now been fixed).
• The studio Look North World received $2.25 million from investors. Contributors included London Venture Partners, Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund, Overwolf, Crush Ventures, Hasbro, Pix Capital, and Hibbard Road Partners. The studio will use the funds for the development and publication of new games based on Unreal Engine for Fortnite. A reminder, Look North World was founded a year ago by Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian along with a group of veterans from Electronic Arts, Kongregate, and Disney.